Introduction

In 1867 without firing a single shot (or drop of blood) Canada received its independence and became a Commonwealth Nation within the British Empire and establishing itself as a Confederacy.

Flash forward almost a hundred years later, Canada was preparing for the 100th anniversary of the countries birth and in 1964 declared that a special set of circulating commemorative coins would be issued for 1967 and that an open competition would be held for the coin designs with an award of $2500 to the artists whose designs were chosen. In 1966, Alex Colville's animal designs were chosen and he was awarded the prize money of $2500.

A fine example of one of Colville's designs was the twenty five (quarter) cent design.

Design

The obverse design remained unchanged from previous the previous year. Designed by Arnold Machin, the obverse feature the image of a young Queen Elizabeth II wearing a tiara and facing right. On the outer periphery are the words “ELIZABETH II” and “D.G. REGINA”. Encircling the overall design is a circle of beads.

The reverse, designed by Alex Colville, features a bobcat in motion. Above the design is the denomination “25 Cents”. Below the design is the word “CANADA” and dual date “1867-1967”. Encircling the overall design is a circle of beads.

Part way through the mintage year the price of silver drastically rose forcing the Royal Canadian Mint to reduce the silver content from 80% to 50%. Unfortunately for collectors there is no physical way to quickly distinguish the two quarters as design, weight, thickness and diameter are all the same. But, once you own a coin there is a simple sound test that can be performed to tell you the which coin you have.

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Obverse

Reverse

General Market Notes

With more than 48 million coins issued, affordable examples are readily available to collectors.